Entering tonight’s game between Seattle U and Oregon State, it seemed like a safe bet that throwing a zone at Seattle – a sub-30% free throw shooting team – and preventing dribble penetration would be sufficient to come away with a win.
But Sterling Carter continued his hot shooting and defied the scouting report with a team-high 16 points on 4-for-5 shooting from beyond the arc.
When Carter wasn’t firing deep balls, Seattle showed excellent ball movement at times which allowed them to force the OSU zone to move and enable guard Cervante Burrell to find gaps in the defense that led to 10 points and three assists. On a number of occasions, Seattle guards were able to hit gaps and dump the ball off to posts or cutters. Creating easier scoring opportunities – and shooting considerably less 3-pointers than they did against Cal Poly on Sunday- resulted in a much healthier field goal percentage of 47.1 percent.
Oregon State had three players in double-figures with Calvin Haynes the most efficient shooting 4-for-5 while Jared Cunningham had three steals.